Unfortunately, our attempt to shift from PayPal to Stripe ended up with paying extra for things that were included in PayPal. Lesson learned. Going forward, we will thoroughly test out the entire offer. While additional spending resulted in just $10-$20 payed for the luxury of using Stripe invoicing, we are extremely frugal with non-profit funds.
We are officially back on a PayPal train, changing all the Stripe references back to PayPal.
We are looking for volunteers. We are looking for awesome and passionate people to help us organize and deliver the event. This is a live and in-person event.
Please follow the link below to register as a volunteer or scan QR code.
https://forms.office.com/r/a7HtYVDvr0
We are looking for speakers. We are looking for awesome and passionate people to present on different data-related topics, such as:
RDBMS/NoSQL – SQL Server, Postgres, Oracle, MySQL, Snowflake, MongoDB, and others
Public cloud: Azure, AWS, GCP, Alibaba, Oracle, IBM, and others
Visualization – Power BI, Tableau, Qlik, and others
Please follow the link or scan the QR code below to submit your session(s): https://sessionize.com/2023-sql-saturday-silicon-valley
Sponsorship Plan
We appreciate you taking the time to consider sponsoring 2023 SQL Saturday Silicon Valley. We have assembled a few sponsorship plans that you can select from. Donations for this event will be used to cover the costs of running the event. If we have any surplus, it will go into sponsoring future events. The event is put on by Armando Lacerda (lead organizer), Data Driven Technologies, Inc. a local 501.c.3 non-profit, and its volunteers.
Event Overview
The SQL Saturday Silicon Valley is a single-day conference that offers data professionals the opportunity to improve their skills and learn about new products while networking with others in their field and connecting with other members of the local Database community and our sponsors.
This event is put together by a group of dedicated San Jose database community volunteers, local database user groups, and volunteer speakers from Los Angeles, California, other US States, and across the globe.
Attendance
We anticipate 150 attendees. This is going to be our first event after COVID. SQL Saturday Silicon Valley used to bring 600+ attendees prior to 2019.
Cost of Sponsorship
This year, sponsorship ranges from Swag Only at $0 to Platinum at $2,000.00, depending on the package you select:
| Tier | Swag | Bronze | Silver | Gold | Platinum |
| Amount | $0 | $350 | $650 | $1250 | $2000 |
| Sponsor Logo and URL on the event website | x | x | x | x | x |
| Sponsor Logo and URL included in social media/email campaigns | x | x | x | x | x |
| Sponsors Logo included in session slides | x | x | x | x | x |
| Sponsor Logo included in YouTube videos | x | x | x | x | x |
| Social Media posts Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Instagram | x | x | x | x | x |
| Sponsor Raffle | x | $25 GC included | $50 GC included | $75 GC included | $100 GC included |
| Collect Raffle Leads* | x | x | x | x | |
| Email sent on behalf of a sponsor | x | x | x | ||
| Sponsor table (comes with 1 table, 2 chairs, WiFi and electricity) (based on availability) | x | x | x | ||
| Product-focused sponsor session (based on availability) | x | x | |||
| Sponsor a room (name a room) (based on availability) | x | x | |||
| Caffeine and pastries | x | x | |||
| Sponsor Email | x | ||||
| Speaker Appreciation dinner | x |
To sponsor please follow this link to fill out the sponsorship form: https://forms.office.com/r/2NAqbp24uC. An invoice will be emailed to you (generated by PayPal) and can be paid by check or credit card. All fees must be paid in advance.
Cancellation Policy
Any cancellation that is caused by us will result in a full refund. It’s really that simple – no event, no expenses, no need for sponsorship money.
Raffle Management
Raffle registration is used to opt-in attendee information with our sponsors. Remember the raffle prize is your key to success and the better the prize the more leads you will collect. Attendees must be present to win.
We will manage the raffle and collect, clean up, and de-dup the data for you and send you the leads after the event. We will let you know who the winners of the raffle are, and you can send them the prize. At the same time, we strongly recommend we take over prize disbursement as well, to be a one-stop shop for an entire raffle lifecycle. Please let us know if you would like to handle the raffle prize on your own.
A few weeks ago (June 10, 2023) we had our 2nd EVER (after covid) in-person event and it’s time to talk about how it all happened. This blog post is going to talk about our original plan, what we were able to deliver, and what worked well vs. what needs improvement.
After our first in-person event (after covid), our goal was to rinse and repeat while trying to meet or beat our 300+ attendees in pre-covid days. We wanted to see more speakers, sponsors, and attendees. We wanted to see more enthusiasm for data, and we wanted to see greater outreach beyond our 78 attendees back in 2022.
Despite a late/slow start on March 2023, we got things together pretty quickly. Due to our past experience and the desire of teammates/volunteers to have another awesome event, we were ready in less than 2 months. After a total of 5 online meetings to prepare for the event and numerous emails/text messages/calls/messengers, we were ready to make it happen.
Running an in-person after covid and after the PASS demise
Since this was our second in-person after PASS’s demise, we already had most if not all tools lined up at our disposal to replicate and enhance our event experience. The Team behind sqlsaturday.com was excited and ready to help with YAML. The LMU Team was excited to have us back. We (aka the Team) were excited to forget about online meetings for a day and have a great in-person event.
Tools used during this event:
Event stats:
Things that we planned, but decided against
What worked great
Things to improve
Sponsorship Plan
We appreciate you taking the time to consider sponsoring 2023 Data.SQL.Saturday in LA. We have assembled a few sponsorship plans that you can select from. Donations for this event will be used to cover the costs of running the event and the LA Data Platform SQL User Group meetings. If we have any surplus, it will go into sponsoring future events. The event is put on by Data Driven Technologies, Inc. a local 501.c.3 non-profit, and its volunteers.
Event Overview
The Data.SQL.Saturday is a single-day conference that offers data professionals the opportunity to improve their skills and learn about new products while networking with others in their field and connecting with other members of the local Database community and our sponsors.
This event is put together by a group of dedicated Los Angeles database community volunteers, local database user groups, and volunteer speakers from Los Angeles, California, other US States, and across the globe.
Attendance
When the event was held in person, it used to bring in 300+ attendees. In 2020 we moved to a virtual event for the first time and had 700+ registrations from all around the world, with 400+ attending the event. In 2022, the first in-person event after COVID19, we had 78 attendees in total. For 2023 event, we anticipate 100+ attendees.
Cost of Sponsorship
This year, sponsorship ranges from Swag Only at $0 to Platinum at $2,000.00, depending on the package you select:
| Tier | Swag | Bronze | Silver | Gold | Platinum |
| Amount | $0 | $350 | $650 | $1250 | $2000 |
| Sponsor Logo and URL on the event website | x | x | x | x | x |
| Sponsor Logo and URL included in social media/email campaigns | x | x | x | x | x |
| Sponsors Logo included in session slides | x | x | x | x | x |
| Sponsor Logo included in YouTube videos | x | x | x | x | x |
| Social Media posts Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Instagram | x | x | x | x | x |
| Sponsor Raffle | x | x $25 GC included | x $50 GC included | x $75 GC included | x $100 GC included |
| Collect Raffle Leads* | x | x | x | x | |
| Email sent on behalf of a sponsor | x | x | x | ||
| Sponsor table (comes with canopy , 1 table, 2 chairs, WiFi and electricity) (based on availability) | x | x | x | ||
| Product-focused sponsor session (based on availability) | x | x | |||
| Sponsor a room (name a room) (based on availability) | x | x | |||
| Short video advertising embedded in a recorded session (if the room is recorded) | x | x | |||
| Caffeine and pastries | x | x | |||
| Sponsor Email | x | ||||
| Speaker Appreciation dinner | x | ||||
| 12 months of LA Data Platform User Group sponsorship | x |
To sponsor please follow this link to fill out the sponsorship form: https://forms.office.com/r/4VWxbgTBrQ. An invoice will be emailed to you (generated by PayPal) and can be paid by check or credit card. All fees must be paid in advance.
Cancellation Policy
Any cancellation that is caused by us will result in a full refund. It’s really that simple – no event, no expenses, no need for sponsorship money.
Raffle Management
Raffle registration is used to opt-in attendee information with our sponsors. Remember the raffle prize is your key to success and the better the prize the more leads you will collect. Attendees must be present to win.
We will manage the raffle and collect, clean up, and de-dup the data for you and send you the leads after the event. We will let you know who the winners of the raffle are, and you can send them the prize. At the same time, we strongly recommend we take over prize disbursement as well, to be a one-stop shop for an entire raffle lifecycle. Please let us know if you would like to handle the raffle prize on your own.
We are looking for volunteers. We are looking for awesome and passionate people to help us organize and deliver the event. This is a live and in-person event.
Please follow the link below to register as a volunteer or scan QR code below.
Introduction
Running virtual meetings while recording is tiresome. Planning and marketing virtual meetings, as well as producing video content from those recorded meetings, and above all delivering could be quite overwhelming. The secret sauce to make meeting delivery easier is to use a rinse-and-repeat technique.
Problem
While the main problem is delivering meetings, the major pain point of that problem is delivering those meetings efficiently and consistently. Repeating the same steps using a script is the only way to tackle it. A well-designed PowerPoint slide deck with meeting notes that you can repeat every time is all you need.
What you would need here is to identify what are the commonly used sentences and phrases, write this script into slide deck notes, and just repeat that script by reading it every time while perfecting it.
Solution
Introducing LA Data Platform PowerPoint (“PPT”) slide deck. The following PPT slide deck includes the script as a slide note to make your virtual meeting more consistent, repeatable, and predictable.
How do you use it during the meeting? Just use the PowerPoint Live option in MS Teams (Fig #1) and select your PPT slide deck.
This will allow you to share slides with attendees while keeping your “teleprompter” notes to yourself (Fig #2).
Enjoy it!
It’s common sense that the right type of organization to run community events to benefit the public is a non-profit. What perhaps is not common sense, is the cost associated with running one. Let’s start with non-profit benefits, but focus more on direct and indirect costs. One of the benefits of a registered 501.c.3 like our Data Driven Technologies, Inc. is not paying any Federal/CA State income taxes which gives an impression that it’s free. Let’s attempt to clarify and effectively debunk the idea that the cost of running a non-profit is zero.
Perhaps now, after 4-5 years of running a non-profit out of California, we can clearly see what direct and indirect costs are as well as startup vs. ongoing costs. The following is neither tax nor legal advice. Just our personal experience and observation.
Startup cost
CA Secretary of State+CA DOJ Charity Registration+IRS+Bank+Credit Card Payment Gateway
Using a paid service such as SwiftFillings.com (see Fig #1) allowed us to complete all the initial fillings with the Internal Revenue Service (501.c.3 determination), California Secretary of State (creation of new corporation), California Department Of Justice (public charity registration) in 1-2 hours.
Once we received an EIN and IRS letter of determination, we started to look for a bank that offered a free checking account. Finding a bank that is willing to open a free checking account for a non-profit took at least 3 trips to 3 different banks with about 4 hours spent in total.
Cost: direct = $300 with indirect = 4-5 hours
Ongoing cost
CA Secretary of State – The California Secretary of State requires any new organization to file papers with the State (Fig. #2). The age of your organization will define the amount of effort as well as the cost
Cost: direct $20-$200 with indirect = 30-60 minutes
CA Department of Justice Charity Registry – The California Department of Justice requires any new charity to register (Fig. #3).
Cost: direct $25-$200 with in-direct cost of 30-60 minutes (depends on how fast https://oag.ca.gov/ website works on that day)
Internal Revenue Service – IRS requires yearly filing for a non-profit/public charity. It is free and requires submission of a 990-N electronic form (Fig. #3)
Cost = direct $0 with in-direct cost of less than 30 minutes (depends on https://www.irs.gov website performance)
Total cost: direct = $50-$200 vs. indirect = 90-160 minutes
Conclusion
Contrary to popular belief, running an IRS-recognized 501.c.3 organization is not free. That being said it’s fairly inexpensive at a direct cost, but you need to take into consideration the indirect cost as well. Your indirect cost will include your dedicated time to “feed the government bureaucracy” and it could easily take more than just a few hours.
Hopefully, by now know exactly what it takes to create and most importantly keep your non-profit running. Good luck!
Due to a recent incident that involved a bad actor’s inappropriate behavior (read more here), we are introducing the following changes to combat and hopefully prevent such incidents in the future.
Here are some of the upcoming changes to the virtual meeting setup:
Meeting URL
Every meeting will have a new and unique URL.
Please pay special attention to the new link in EventBrite (Fig #1) and Meetup (Fig #2).
MS Team Meeting changes
Meeting option changes include Lobby, Presenters, Allowed resources for attendees, etc…
Registration Form
All participants will have to register (provide name and email) prior to joining (Fig #3)
Once you register, you will receive the following “Join Event” button to join the meeting (Fig #4)
Waiting Room (Lobby)
All participants will have to wait in a virtual waiting room before being allowed to join the main virtual meeting. The host of the meeting will admit participants individually or all at once.
We reserve the right to deny access (Fig #5) to and/or kick out (Fig #6) anyone whose sole purpose of joining the meeting is NOT to teach/learn about technology and data topics.
Sharing Restrictions
Only the host, co-host, and presenter(s) of the meeting will be able to share their screen, web camera, and microphone while participants will not be able to share anything (Fig #7) unless the host grants them permission to do so.
Registration cut-off (Fig #8)
Eventbrite ticket sale will end at 8PM PST
Data Driven Technologies (DDT) 